1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein relate generally to handheld electronic devices and, more particularly, to a handheld electronic device and associated method that provides for the automatic updating of a user's mobile phone number in an organization's global address list.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous types of handheld electronic devices are known. Examples of such handheld electronic devices include, for instance, personal data assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, two-way pagers, cellular telephones, and the like. Such handheld electronic devices are generally intended to be portable and thus are relatively small. Examples of handheld electronic devices are included in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,452,588 and 6,489,950.
Many handheld electronic devices include and provide access to a wide range of integrated applications, including, without limitation, email, telephone, short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), browser, calendar and address book applications, such that a user can easily manage information and communications from a single, integrated device. These applications are typically selectively accessible and executable through a user interface that allows a user to easily navigate among and within these applications.
In addition, handheld electronic devices are often integrated with the computer systems of an organization with which the user of the handheld electronic device is associated. For example, the user may be an employee of a particular corporation, and that user's handheld electronic devices may be integrated with the computer systems of the employer corporation. In such cases, the user is typically able to use the handheld electronic device to access an electronic mail system that is operated by that organization to, for example, send and receive emails.
As is known in the art, most electronic mail systems maintain a global address list or book that includes and centralizes contact information for each user in the organization that has an account on the electronic mail system (the term “global addressed list or book” is used herein in a general sense, and is not meant to refer to any particular list or book that is maintained by a particular electronic mail system). In addition, most handheld electronic devices that are integrated with the computer system of an organization are provided with address lookup functionality that enables a user of the handheld electronic device to remotely access and search the global address list or book of the organization to obtain contact information for particular individuals. The contact information that is stored and available to users typically includes the office location (physical address), office phone number and email address of each individual. This enables a user to, for example, readily place a phone call or send an email to another member of the organization.
As is also known in the art, devices, such as handheld electronic devices, that include wireless functionality, such as telephone and data functionality, are provided with a subscriber identity module card (SIM card). A SIM card is a small printed circuit board/chip provided inside the device that contains subscriber details, including the user's mobile phone number and other data that identifies the user to a service provider, security information, and memory for a personal directory of numbers. The information contained inside a SIM card may be modified by a user, such as when the user obtains a new mobile phone number. This ability to change SIM card information, and in particular mobile phone number information, outside of the control of an organization with which the user is associated is one reason why mobile phone number information is typically not included in the global address list or book contact entries. It would be useful, however, for users to be able to reliably obtain an accurate, up to date mobile phone number from a global address list or book using the user's handheld electronic device. Thus, there is a need for an improved handheld electronic device that provides for the automatic updating of a user's mobile phone number in an organization's global address list.